Melting Dreams: Kyla's Peril
by The Orange Suitor
Summary: The story of a Minecraft player named Kyla's life in and out of the game.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

 _It was the happiest she had been in a long time. Jogging down the shoreline, headphones in, favorite song playing. The waves tickled her bare feet as they came in and out. The saltwater smell combined with the bearable sun level put her in a state of zen. Yes, a trip to the beach, her beach, always made Kyla feel better. Whether it was the general ambiance, the lack of a crowd, or the fact that her favorite song was playing, something about today just felt right to Kyla._

 _Kyla suddenly started to dance vigorously, as her favorite part of the song came on. The few people that were there were tanning, and didn't notice her. Kyla knew this of course, which was exactly why she felt comfortable dancing. If the other beachgoers were actually paying attention, it would be a different story. She pounded the sand down under her feet, while her hair went in all directions above her head. Unfortunately not all good things last, and the song was over in a short time. That didn't matter to Kyla, it would come on again. She continued her jog down the beach, knowing she would have to turn around and go home sometime. But not right now. Now was Kyla time. The warm rays of the soon-to-be setting sun warmed her back as she jogged into the distance, destination unclear._

Some time later, much later, the girl arrived at the street she lived on. A million worries ran through her head. What would her parents think? She was supposed to be home from school hours ago! Would they ask where she had been? She reached the front porch of her dull red house. The boards creaked underneath her feet. Would she lie to them, not tell them she had gone to new parts of the town unsupervised? She couldn't lie again… it always made her feel guilty. Well, there was no point in delaying it at any rate. Kyla walked into the house, prepared to defend herself against the wrath of her parents. Neither of them answered the door. She rang the doorbell a few more times. Nothing. She pulled the key from under the mat and walked inside.  
 _Weird_ , she thought, _where did they go?_ She checked the family room. _Nope, not there._ The kitchen? _No._ Bedrooms? _Not there either!_ Kyla walked back into the kitchen, worried but still hungry.

"Well, no use in getting worked up while the tanks are empty I guess."

She got a glass of water, and some cold chicken wings. The fridge required some effort to open, but she was used to this. She walked over to the freezer to get some ice from the ice machine, but no luck. She beat on the machine in annoyance with her fists.

 _Dang it, this thing is always busted… hey what's that over there?_

She walked over to the counter and snatched up a note. Scrawled on it was a message in her mother's handwriting.

 _Kyla, your dad and I went to the bar again tonight. Don't worry about food, we left some chicken in the fridge for you. You'll have to eat it cold, the microwave is busted. We should be back later, don't worry about it. If you get bored, we left some movies in the family room that you could watch. You could also play that new computer game you got, if you want. See you real soon! Love you! - Mom and Dad_

She set the note down, with an expression of sadness on her face. _Why do they always do this? They're never home to see me, and what do they mean they'll be back later? This note has been here all day, it IS later! Ugh!_ Kyla walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. The couch was stained with various substances from various occasions. Kyla could recall the situation of any particular spill on sight. It was quite impressive. She flipped on the television, after a few minutes of fiddling with the dying remote. _Well I guess I could always watch a movie, I mean it's just a movie right? That couldn't be too bad._ She turned over the movie lying on the table near the couch. The cover looked pretty old. She picked it up, sighed, and set the movie back down. _Really? Casper the Friendly Ghost? It's like they don't even know how old I am. Do they even pay attention to what's going on in their own house?_ Kyla walked up to her room. The movie was a bust, and the kitchen contained that mocking note. Her bedroom was the only comfortable place for her now. She decided that the note was at least right about one thing. She could play her "new" computer game (that she'd had for 3 years) with her friends. Kyla turned on her desktop, and saw the familiar Mojang symbol luring her in. She skipped over the single-player mode of the game and dove right into multiplayer. Now all she had to do was find her favorite Minecraft server in the mess of a list… _Yes, there it is!_ She clicked on the server, appropriately named Whineplex for all the complaining people on it all the time. She successfully connected, but was instantly bombarded with messages from someone new. _Weird, that person is on my list of acquaintances… but I don't know anyone named "NoahOfTheStrings."_ The person sent her several messages.

" _ **I know where to find you..**_ " _Alright,_ Kyla thought, _that's a little bizarre._

" _ **Kyla..**_ " _K, this is getting a little freaky.._

" _ **Your window is a little dusty…**_ " Kyla glanced to her left at the closed window and saw a figure looming in it. A pair of bright red eyes stared back at her.

"JESUS WHAT THE HELL?!" Kyla fell out of her chair in surprise. The person looking in began laughing, more accurately described as gasping for air.

"Oh… my… GOD… NOAH? What are you DOING creeping in on me like that?"It was her childhood friend, Noah. The only person she had ever thought really understands her.

"Don't do that to me! MMM.." _As much as I hate to admit it, Noah can be a little annoying at times._ Kyla stood back up, brushed herself off, and sit back down in her chair. She did a little spin in the process of facing him. _In retrospect I should have seen this coming, what with the oddness of the situation and the gamertag._ Noah responded, attempting to catch his breath.

"Ok… ok… *gasp* I'm sorry… *wheeze* Kylaaa AHAAHA"

"You know you can be so… so… UNACCEPTABLE sometimes NOAH.."

"Alright, I'm sorry, I just wanted to check up on you, y'know? You've been having a tough time lately…" Kyla looked at him and thought to herself _Well yes, today was completely awful. Everyone made fun of me at school for my drawings that were in my notebook, my parents still aren't home, and I had cold chicken wings for dinner…. Also I just had half a heart attack… today has been real AWFUL._

"No need to worry Noah, today was fine!"

"Well that's good, just tell me if anything's wrong ok Kyla?" Noah climbed down the side of her house and ran down the street. He was going in the direction of his home.

Kyla sighed. _Well, looks like that's another lie I had to tell Noah._ As she said this she marked a tally on the wall. She leaned back in her chair and looked at the entire wall behind her desktop. It was covered it tally marks. _Well, at any rate, it isn't the biggest one I've told._ Kyla turned her computer off, got up, and walked over to her bed. She could at least hope that tomorrow would be better.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

 ***Beep*Beep*Beep*Beep*Beep*Beep*Beep*Beep***

 _Ugh…_ Kyla woke up with a splitting headache. She pushed back the light blue covers of her bed, and swung her legs over the edge. Her hair hung in tangled knots around her sweating face. She tried laying back down, but the headache continued to get worse. Kyla's vision started to blur. She ran as fast as she could, or speed-walked, into the bathroom and vomited into the toilet. _W… what did I eat? Those chicken wings must have been baaad…._ She walked over to the sink. The mirror suspended above it was cracked. She turned on the faucet, making extra sure to turn on the cold water instead of the hot. The knobs made a horribly scratching sound as metal twisted on metal. Kyla splashed the freezing water in her face, then shuffled back into her room.

She sat back down on the bed, somehow feeling even worse than before. Kyla looked around the room. _What would make… me feel a little... better…?_ The most likely solution that she spotted was an unopened sleeve of poptarts on the nightstand by her bed. Kyla extended her arm, and felt the sleeve crinkle in between her fingers. Oh how she loved that sound. She opened the sleeve carefully, wanting to save it for school on Monday. The smell wafted towards her as she opened the special package. She could tell without even looking that this was not a good thing. She knew that flavor, and it made her want to vomit again. _Ewwww… watermelon? *Cough* Why would we even HAVE these?_ She carried the poptarts down the stairs, making sure to keep them far away from her nose or mouth. Kyla disposed of them, disgust apparent on her face. _No no no, Pop-Tarts will not do for MY special needs. I'll take care of THOSE later._ She walked down the hallway leading towards the family room. The smell of alcohol penetrated Kyla's nostrils. Glancing to the right, she noticed her mother passed out in the bathtub of the downstairs bathroom. The floral print curtain had been yanked down and was currently lying on the floor. Kyla grabbed it and wrapped it around her mother, gave her a kiss on the forehead, and then walked out of the bathroom. She continued to go down the hallway. Glancing to her left, she saw her dad passed out on the dining room table. An empty bottle rolled out of his hand and onto the floor. Kyla walked in and picked it up, going back to the kitchen to throw it in the recycle bin. She finished the trip to the family room this time, going in and sitting down on the couch. The old grandfather clock in the corner rang seven times. Man, that was early. Kyla flipped through the channels, rather the channels that they could get on that old set. _Kids show… no. Documentary on Colony Collapse Disorder… no._ She flipped past a news channel, and decided to watch it for a little bit. Just the average news. A terrorist attack in a foreign country, a couple of shootings in the big city that wasn't too far away, a local car accident, news covering the upcoming election, etc. _Ugh, there's nothing to watch around here!_ Kyla made a round trip to the kitchen to get some BrinkCo. brand ice cream sandwiches. They tasted pretty good, nothing like the good old Pop-Tarts though. She finally got settled in and was getting ready to watch some reality television show, when she checked her phone. She hadn't checked it since she left school yesterday, and noticed there were two messages on it. The first was a text from her mother

" _Sweetie, we're home!"_ The message was received at about One last night. The second was a voicemail left by Noah. Kyla entered her 5-digit voicemail code and listened in

" _Tzzzz Hello? Hi Kyla, if you're listening in, I just wanted to know if you could come over tomorrow. I know it's a Saturday, and it's pretty chilly around here in February -especially in the morning- but it's not a long walk away. I wanted to tell you something important, so please be there if you can! Thanks! Tzzzz"_ The message was sent in even earlier than the text from her mother. _Judging from the time, it must have been while he was walking home from my house… wait that means this message is referring to TODAY! I need to get ready!_

Kyla instantly knew that she wanted to go over there once she got the message. Noah always managed to make her feel better, especially in dark times like these. Kyla ran upstairs to her room and threw on something presentable. A pair of jeans and a red T-shirt would do for her. Kyla didn't need to be quiet, her parents were in a deep sleep. She knew this from past experience. Kyla held her hand up to her face to smell her breath. _EW!_ She ran into the bathroom to brush her teeth and put on some makeup. _When should I go? Am I already late? No.. it's too early in the morning. But I want to see him right now! I should go!_ She rushed out the door, making sure to grab her phone and bag. Kyla ran down the front steps and into the desolate garage. She looked at the red and pink bicycle that she'd had for 5 years. It would get her their quickly, that way she might not freeze to death halfway there. It was about 2 degrees Celsius, a normal temperature in Delaware during that time of the year. She got on her bicycle and started to ride down the street. Noah's house was a few blocks away, closer to the beach than her house. The road was full of potholes and cracks. Kyla had to be careful not to ruin her bike, she knew that it wasn't likely she would ever get a new one. Kyla looked towards the west, mainly because the rising sun was blinding her eyes. There appeared to be storm clouds moving in. _That's just great, now if I leave my bike outside, it'll get all rusty._ The approaching storm made her peddle faster. She peddled past the elementary school she had been in a long time ago. She went past the park, the random Taco Bell that appeared overnight, and the houses of many of the people she knew from school. It took about five minutes, but Kyla eventually reached the light green colored house that was her friend's. She walked up the stairs - they didn't make any sort of noise- and looked at the door. The gigantic door, recently painted a dark black, was the only thing now that stood between her and Noah. Whatever he wanted to tell her, the door was the only thing preventing her from hearing it. Then she realized something. _Wow, I must look stupid to anybody watching me… just standing here staring at a door._ She decided today would be the day she wasn't awkward, and knocked on the door. The sound was satisfying, reverberating through the door and into the rooms lying beyond. Kyla stood there for a solid three minutes before realizing that nobody was coming to the door. Hesitant to leave, she tried the doorbell. More time passed, and still nobody came. No noises came from inside the house, no lights were on, and no shadows moved from behind the black curtains of the large windows. _Maybe he's home alone and is doing something. Taking a shower or listening to some music maybe?_ Whatever it was, Kyla knew she had to find some way to get into the house. She needed to know what Noah wanted with her.

Not wanting to seem like she was breaking into the house, Kyla discreetly walked around the side and into the backyard. The backyard was small, but nice. It was fenced in by a large, yellow painted, cedar wood fence. _Nice,_ Kyla thought, _that kind of wood is really expensive…_ A few trees dotted the yard, two of them appeared to be oaks. A shrub lined each of the two sides of the house, and the grass was neatly cut. The last detail of the backyard was a large, white shed in one of the back corners, with a padlock visible between two chains crossing across the doors. A few large stones surrounded the shed. The back-porch was also fairly kempt. There were two potted rosebushes near the back door, which was nearly identical to the front door. Kyla walked onto the porch and up to the back door. She tested it, but that door was also locked. There had to be a way to get in. Kyla tried opening either of the windows that were on each side of the door. Both were firmly shut, with curtains covering them.. She circled the house, not noticing how conspicuous she was being. She was completely focused on finding a way inside the house. Anything that would aid her. Then she saw the thing she was looking for on the side of the house. _Aha! An open window! Crud, it's a second story window, I can't reach THAT!_ Then she remembered the locked shed in the backyard. _Maybe there's a ladder I could use in there? At the very least there could be a spare key to the back door inside._ Kyla overturned a few of the large stones and at last came upon the key that unlocked the shed. She carefully turned the key in the lock, and caught the chains as they fell limp. She placed the chains on the ground near the doors, and pushed them open.

The inside of the shed was a dull brown. she saw many things on the floor. A really nice lawnmower, some pool floaties - _they don't even have a pool_ -, all sorts of bush and tree-trimming tools, piles of rope, a fake christmas tree, a few pieces of firewood, and garbage bags most likely containing decorations of some kind. Next, Kyla scanned the walls, looking for a keychain or anything that could be of use to her. She found no keys, but what she did spot was a ladder hiding along the back wall of the shed. _Perfect!_ She found the ladder surprisingly difficult to slide out from its groove in the wall. Her hand slipped as she tried to pull it out, and it gave her a decent splinter in the pinkie finger on her left hand. .

"SHIT" she yelped as the splinter broke her skin. "Ooo, that stings." Kyla grabbed the ladder by its steps and pulled it. The ladder slowly started to come out of its groove. She walked over to the left side and started to pull on the steps their. The ladder swung out in that direction. She carefully kept pulling it until it was in a straight line facing the door. She slid it out on its side and over to the spot where she needed it, under the open window. Kyla opened up the ladder and set it upright, positioning it so she could reach the window from the top. The ladder swayed slightly as the cold winds blew to the east. The storm was getting closer. Kyla quickly but carefully climbed to the top. Each time she grasped a step with her left hand, she was painfully reminded of the little piece of wood stuck in it.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Finally she reached the top, making sure not to slip off. Kyla grabbed the ledge of the nearby open window with her left hand, almost slipping from the pain. Her right hand was anchored to the ladder, as she was scared to jump. Kyla mustered up the courage and lept into the window, crash-landing on a bed. _This must be Noah's room_ , she thought as she took a look around. The bed had black covers covered with a purple, diamond pattern. There were two pillows covered in purple pillowcases as the head of the bed. A nightstand near the bed held up a lamp, as well as a few other things. The curtains matched the ones on the downstairs windows, and there was even a decent sized television set located on top of a dresser facing the bed. A closet containing many hanging shirts was in the opposite wall of the room, close to the door. The door appeared to lead into some circular hallway-type room. The walls were a light grey color, covered in posters of various Japanese depictions. Some looked like they described games, while others showed off singers. It was obvious that nobody was in the room, aside from Kyla. _Guess nobody's home after all? I probably showed up to early…_

Kyla decided she could snoop around Noah's room, since there was nobody around to judge or stop her. She opened up the various drawers of Noah's dresser, finding socks, a pair of pajamas, shorts, and even something more special. She pulled out a pair of underwear, stretched it out as far as she could, flung it across the room. The underwear hit the stretch of wall located above the doorway. It fell on top of a cat, who Kyla hadn't noticed until now. The cat pawed the clothing off of its head, and then sat back, staring. The cat's unforgiving green eyes pierced Kyla like a frozen knife. _Why is it just staring at me… like I'm guilty of something._ The cat sat and watched Kyla, moving its head back and forth as if to say "No, don't go snooping around in here." Then a large crack of thunder from the nearly overhead storm spooked the cat and it scampered off into some other room. Then Kyla noticed Noah's phone sitting amongst the rubble on the nightstand. The screen was cracked pretty badly, but the phone still functioned. She flipped it on ( _Weird, there's no password)_ and went to the messages. Sure enough, there was the one sent to her yesterday in plain sight. There were also a bunch of voicemails from Noah's parents, but Kyla decided not to listen to those for privacy's sake. She wondered why he had left his phone, but then she became distracted by the storm. It was now completely overhead. She noticed how the rain was pouring down heavily, then realized that she had left the window open. She ran back over to the window, but water was already everywhere around it. She attempted to shut it, but then froze suddenly.

Kyla's eyes froze as she saw it. The black car rolled up into the driveway and parked neatly near the garage. It was hard enough seeing the car since she was peering at the front through a side window, let alone in the pouring rain. She could see a large figure step out of the car, and look towards the side of the house. _Eep!_ Kyla ducked back in the window and shut it, afraid to be seen. She closed the curtains, leaving just enough space to look through. The figure approached the ladder, scratching his head. Kyla recognized who it was, someone she had seen only twice before. The first was the only other time she had come to Noah's house, and the second was when he came with Noah to school one day last year. The figure took down the ladder, destroying Kyla's best means of escape. It was Noah's older brother, Kevin.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

Kyla yanked the curtains shut. _Oh god.. Oh god… what am I going to do?_ She wondered what would happen if Kevin found her in his house. Would he call the police? _Oh god, she was going to die here!_ _Well maybe not, but still.._ She peered back out the window. She couldn't see him anymore. Where did he go? She walked around to the other window of the room, the one on the front side of the house. Kevin was standing in front of the door, leaning on it. He was slightly turned towards Kyla, and she could see that he was fiddling with a keychain. _Oh no he's going to come in and find me!_ Kyla needed to find a place to hide. She first looked around Noah's room. While trying to hide, she had to make sure that she left no traces behind.

*Slam* _That was the front door, he must be inside._ Tiptoeing across the grey carpet in Noah's room, she walked over to the underwear that had been previously flicked against the wall. Picking it up, she folded it neatly and put it back inside the drawer. _No trace._ Kyla glanced back out the window, the storm appeared to be getting more intense. A shadow was cast into the room as the sun was covered by the blanket of clouds. The cat had returned to the doorway, once again staring at her with its unforgiving eyes. Kyla glared at it. _Please don't meow, please, please.._ She crept over to try and scare the cat away, but it was too late. The cat emitted a painfully loud "Meow," possibly even audible from downstairs. Kyla hoped Kevin had not heard the noise, and shooed the cat into another room. She was now in the circular hallway that she had glanced at before. It was far larger than she had originally thought, and doors to other rooms circled around her. She snuck around the hallway, checking each room and its possible places to hide. First there was Noah's room. _Under the bed maybe? No._ _The closet? Darn, it has no doors._ The next room around the hallway was another bedroom.

Kyla wandered inside for a quick peek. This bedroom was similar in size and shape to Noah's room. The color scheme was a lot brighter, however. The bed, in the opposite corner as door, was striped orange and yellow. Various cute hats littered the floor, hanging from spots on the wall as well. The curtains were the same shade of black as all the other ones in the house. The walls were painted a light pink, and the gentle ceiling fan above was the only source of illumination. Kyla dared not turn on the fan, lest she attract attention to her presence. The only clue she had to whom the room belonged was the picture of Kevin located in the center of a long table. The table was pressed in between the bed and the bordering wall, and held up many different pictures. One was of Kevin, wearing an adorable cat-hat, next to another odd boy dressed in a rainbow of colors. Another was of Kevin with his hand on Noah's shoulder, they were standing in front of one of the trees in the backyard. That picture was apparently taken in the spring, because the tree's pink flowers had bloomed and were falling through the air while it was taken. There was a picture of their parents embraced in front of the house, as well as a picture of Noah that had been knocked over. She placed the picture upright and took another look around the room. _Was there any good place to hide in here?_ The only place she could think of would be under the long table. Kyla had to be careful not to get too distracted, Kevin could walk up the stairs and surprise her any moment. Unfortunately for her, she spotted the most adorable hat lying on the ground in the center of the room. She picked it up and put it on, even though it was a little big on her. The thought of someone else bigger having worn this made Kyla *giggle,* she wasn't sure why. Strings hung down from the hat, which was shaped like some fluffy, rounded, pink monster. They tickled the back of her neck. The hat was fairly warm and comfortable, she was so enveloped in it that she didn't hear Kevin coming up the stairs. She looked out the door and saw Kevin approaching from the stairs, staring at his phone. Kyla dove under the table, taking a few hats with her to try to disguise herself. Kyla crawled over to the junction where the table met with both bordering walls, and curled up into a ball at it. She covered her now compact body with hats in an effort to hide. She was able to view the outside through a small hole in one of the more worn-out hats.

Kevin walked into the room, and turned on the fan light. He was hopping over his piles of hats with ease, without even looking. _He's probably used to the mess, it's his mess after all._ Kevin walked up to the far end of the table, the only end that wasn't being bordered by something. Kyla heard a thud from above, and stared up at the underside of the table. It didn't appear to be held up well, as it was only supported by one long shaft of splintery wood running the length in the center. Kevin's signature was scrawled on the underside of the table, and the year next to it dated it at nine years prior. _Kevin set his phone on the table_ , Kyla thought to herself. Then Kevin started to mumble. Her mind went completely blank, her body motionless, and she stopped breathing. To her, his voice sounded as gentle and soft as a thousand pillows hitting the ground after being dropped from a skyscraper.

"Hat… hat… hat... " He was looking for a certain hat. Kyla's eyes narrowed as she saw him bend down to turn a few hats over. "No… not that one." He squatted down, looking around in a circle for his hat. Kyla sank back as far as she could into the corner.

"Ugh… where is my pink snowball hat? I'm not going out without it." Kyla glanced upward at the hat he was looking for, the one perched on her head. She had to think of a plan fast or he was going to see it from his position on the other side of the room. Then he would come over, pull that hat out of the "pile," and find an unwanted guest. _Aha! I know what to do!_ When Kevin turned around to search under an extremely long dresser on the opposite wall as the bed, slowly removed the hat from her head. Then Kyla rolled the hat underneath the bed to the other side of the room, out in the open. Her bait worked, because Kevin stood up and walked over to it.

"How did I not see this earlier?" Kevin picked up the pink hat, fastened it on his head, and proceeded to walk back over to the table. It fit snugly. He picked up his phone and walked in the direction of the bathroom. At least that's what Kyla thought, since she could only see his feet. She heard a door slam from across the hallway. _Now's my chance!_ Kyla got out from under the table and crept to the doorway of the bedroom. She peered out of the room, checking to see which door Kevin shut. There was a door on the other side of Noah's room (2 doors away), that was shut with the light turned on. Kyla heard several *plunks* as something dense kept splashing in water. _Ew, he's taking a shit… gross!_ Kyla darted across the circular hallway to the stairs, which were slightly to her right. She crept silently down them, thankfully none of them squeaked. They were probably new. A rail lined one edge of the stairway, separating two sets of stairs going opposite directions. Kyla let her hand slide along the smooth surface of the railing, while keeping a firm grip to make sure she didn't slip. The walls were decorated with a nice shade of tan. There was a flat area that connected the two opposite stair sections, which also had a window above it. She walked down the stairs that led to the hallway, walked along the flat section, and walked down the other set of stairs. Kyla was now in a long hallway. Looking left, she could see a rather large family room, complete with a huge red couch and a gigantic television. Looking to the right, Kyla saw a fancy kitchen on the right side of the hallway, and a tiled bathroom on the left. She also saw the front door straight ahead, but much farther away. The hallway had yellow walls, with white wood panels lining the top and bottom. Then she heard Kevin coming down the stairs again.

 _No, No_ , she thought, and ran for the nearest place to hide. There was no way she could make it to the door in time. Kyla skid across the hardwood floor and dove into the kitchen. She slid across the kitchen tiles, nearly hitting the granite countertop on the opposite side. She scoped the room quickly to find where she could hide. The walls were grey, made up of many small grey squares. The squares differed slightly in shade, providing a cool wavy appearance. There were white cabinet doors everywhere, most likely containing hundreds of bowls, cups, and utensils. She was facing the door through which she entered. There was a large fridge connected to an equally sized freezer to her left. It was made of stainless steel, covered in magnets from different countries. There were ABC magnets on one side, spelling out the names of everyone in the family. Next to the fridge was a pantry, on the side closer to the door. However some boxes were blocking the door, so there was no chance of getting in there in time. A white oven bordered a stove on the opposite side, and something appeared to be cooking in it. The stove was extremely clean, nothing burnt was around the edges of the burners. The countertops, the fridge, _yeesh, everything is spotless!_ Kyla heard a stomp from nearby, which only she could assume was Kevin's shoes stepping down on the hardwood floored hallway. Without thinking, she ran over to the refrigerator-freezer. She pulled open the door on the right. _No!_ The fridge was full of shelves, there was not nearly enough space to fit in. She closed it quickly and opened the freezer door. It was a large open space with a few boxes of food at the bottom. _Why… WHY_ Kyla thought as she climbed into the frozen, metal box. Kyla spotted a BrinkCo. brand ice cream sandwich at the bottom and picked it up. Kyla put it in her pocket for later. She nestled herself into the bottom of the freezer, listening for footsteps. There was no way to see him without opening the door and exposing herself. The freezer was rather cramped and uncomfortable, mainly because the boxes at the bottom were digging painfully into her. She heard a squeaky cabinet open, and some tinkering around. Glass clinked on glass as Kevin grabbed something. Kyla then felt the freezer start to move from side to side. The freezer kept shaking, and she heard a few noises coming from her left. _Oh god, he's rummaging through the fridge._ Kyla heard Kevin walk away, pour something into a glass, then return the drink and slam the door.

"Dang, forgot the ice." Those four words chilled Kyla to the bone, far worse than any freezer could do. _Don't open the door, don't open the door, PLEASE, please…_ She heard footsteps getting closer to the freezer. She would even be relieved to be found at this point, just to escape the cold. It wouldn't be good, but it would be something. The freezer door moved slightly as Kevin grabbed the handle. How would she be able to explain what she was doing in Luckily for Kyla, Kevin's phone rang from another part of the house just at that moment.

"Forgot my phone too!" Kevin sped noisily down the hallway. Kyla heard his footsteps getting quieter, and slowly opened the freezer door. _Yes, he's gone! I can get away!_ Kyla slowly exited the freezer, enjoying the warmth the rest of the kitchen provided. She snuck along the wall in case he came back or passed by the room. Then she looked out the doorway in the direction she heard the footsteps going. Kevin was nowhere to be seen. Eager to escape, Kyla ran for the front door. There was a small room that the door was located in, she thought of it as a welcome room. It contained coats on a rack, shoes of varying sizes and colors, a welcome mat, and a drain. _Maybe the drain is for water that gets through the door?_ The large windows on either side of the door were covered in rain. The sky was pitch-black, the storm had definitely not gotten better. Kyla swung open the screen door. It made a painful noise as a rusty hinge attempted to move. With the screen door ajar, Kyla pushed the wood door open as quickly as she could. She stepped outside and was instantly pounded by rain.

Loud thunder cracked as Kyla ran across the muddy front yard to find her bike. Puddles splashed up, getting her back covered with brown water droplets. She nearly slid on the short grass, and found her bike soaked on the left side of the house where she had left it. The seat looked like a soggy bean bag, and felt like one too. Kyla started peddling but the back tire was stuck in deep mud. She peddled faster and faster, panicking, until the mud released its grip. Kyla was unprepared for this, and the bike shot off in the direction of the driveway. The driveway was slightly higher than the surrounding ground, creating a small bump. As soon as Kyla hit the bump, moving as fast as she was, she was flung off the bike over the handlebars. She landed hard in the dark green yard, and slid a few feet on the muddy ground. The ice cream sandwich she had stolen was now a mushy mess in her pocket. Picking herself up, she noticed the state of despair that her jeans were in. _Aw, these were my favorite pair! This blows!_ Kyla turned around, and walked back toward her bike. There were tears in her eyes, or maybe just rain. It felt like she had twisted the wrist that took most of the impact of her fall. As Kyla walked, she also noticed she now had a small limp. She began to pick up her bike, when lightning struck. She heard the front door open. It was too late to find any cover, and over the roar of thunder, she could hear a voice that was soft and gentle addressing her.

"Kyla? What are you doing here?" Kevin stood on the front porch, getting drenched by the rain as he waited for Kyla to answer him. She stood staring, mouth agape for a few seconds. She gathered herself together, and attempted to provide him a story that wouldn't incriminate her of being in the house.

"Oh, well I was stopping by to see if Noah was around! He texted me yesterday, asking me to come over today. But when I got here on my bike, I fell off it." They stood staring at each other until Kevin pointed at one of the flaws in her story.

"Then, why is your bike facing the other direction? It was like you were leaving, but you said you had just gotten here." Kyla began to panic again, her plan to cover her tracks was failing.

"Well, um, I had gotten up and left my bike on the ground and knocked. I was waiting for about three minutes, then decided to leave. I picked my bike up and turned it around after that." Kevin had a look on his face that was a mixture of skepticism and confusion.

"Alright," he said, scratching his head. "That makes sense, I was upstairs a few minutes ago. I must not have heard you." Kyla would have said "bye" and rode off then, but there was still something she wanted to know.

"Kevin, where is Noah? I assume you know where, and he said he would be here today." Kevin's face turned from confusion to a sad one. His eyes dropped, and he put one of his hands on the side of his face. She didn't notice before, but she could see now that Kevin had been crying. He wouldn't make eye contact, but she saw the redness around his eyes. _Actually, now that I think about it, he looks pretty tired._ She almost pitied him. He still hadn't answered her.

"Well? Kevin, where is Noah?" He looked back up at her, now looking as angry as sad.

"Kyla. Noah is in the hospital. He was hit by a car late yesterday. He's barely making it." The words made Kyla's own eyes dropped. There could be no question that the water dripping down her face was her own tears. She dropped to her knees on the muddy ground, not even caring about the jeans now. The dark clouds sent rain pouring harder than before. Kevin walked over to Kyla and put his hand on her shoulder, looking at the sky. Kyla put her hands over her face. Her shoulders began to move rapidly up and down as she sobbed uncontrollably, thinking about her friend.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:

For Kyla, the next two days went by like a blur. She was completely devastated by the crushing news on Saturday, and spent the entire rest of the day crying. She couldn't even work up the courage to get on Whineplex and tell her friends what had happened. Nothing was making her feel better. The storm that had bombarded the town was gone, but there were still dark clouds cast over her beating heart.

After Kevin broke Noah's current state to her - _He's in a coma,_ \- he told her it would probably be better if she just went home. The bike ride back to her house felt like the longest, saddest ride ever. She was completely covered in mud, rain, and tears. Halfway back to her house, she stopped by the park. She rode up to a bench, but it wasn't just any bench. This was the bench where she and Noah had spent lots of time hanging around when they were younger. She recognized all the trees, knew all the best spots around here to hide, and they had even left their mark on the place. Scrawled into the back of the bench were Kyla's and Noah's signatures. They were rough, as neither of them were good at handwriting back then. However, Kyla could easily tell them apart from the other signatures littering the bench. She walked over to theirs, squatted down, and felt Noah's signature with her finger. She closed her eyes, feeling the indent in the bench with not just her finger, but with her heart. She thought of how a young Noah had stood where she was standing right now, and of how a young Kyla watched him do it. The park brought her back to reality. The wind ripped leaves off the trees, which pelted her in the face as she tried to remember her childhood. Kyla stood back up, realizing that she was no longer in the past. There was a good chance that Noah wouldn't be around anymore, he had suffered a lot of injury in the accident. She walked along one of the park's trails, rolling her bike alongside her. Kyla knew where she was going, a place that few knew about. She had only told two people about this spot. One was Noah, but that probably didn't matter now. The other was her slightly shady friend Francisca.

Kyla walked along the dirt path, ducking under wet and swaying branches. She watched the leaves spin around in circles, picking up dirt and swirling around until they landed in puddles or hit tree trunks. She walked a decent way, looking for a particular landmark, all the while fighting back the urge to break down and unleash a flood of tears. Then she saw it, and for a second, she forgot about everything else. There were two trees on the left side of a small clearing. These trees were special though. They were both gorgeous, tall trees. Their branches criss-crossed, forming a pattern that looked like an upside-down heart. Ironic, because Kyla felt as though her own heart had been turned over. She jumped through this opening in the wall of branches, landing in a small bush. She got up, walked ten steps to her left, and found her special hiding place. It was the entrance to a small cave, formed in a decently sized hill deep in the forest. She climbed through the gap, finding herself in a familiar surrounding that always seemed to make her calm. The cave was almost spherical, with just enough light getting through the entrance to be able to see. The floor was littered with pebbles and many random objects. These objects weren't just trash that had blown in, they were different things that Kyla had collected over the years. She had collected quite the bounty: Several foreign coins, a piece of petrified wood, a fingerless glove that a child had dropped, a few socks that Noah had "forgot," a broken baby-blue comb, a misshapen lollipop given to Kyla by a strange old man, a torn of section of an inflatable pool, a dead squirrel, a pile of acorns, and a snail shell to name a few things. As much as she had, there was still something she needed to add to make her collection complete. Luckily, one good thing came out of yesterday. Water dripped from the ceiling of the cave. Wind entered through the entrance, swirled dust clouds around, then died off. A few plants grew on the walls. She always felt at ease when she came here. Today was no different. She would have to leave now, and all her worries would come flooding back. Before she climbed out of the cave through the hole in its wall, she placed the missing piece to her collection in the center of the room. It was a phone, rather the cracked phone that she had picked up yesterday. She hoped Noah's phone would be comfortable there.

Sunday came and went. Kyla stayed up in her room the entire day, lying in bed. The dusty blinds on her window were shut. The computer and desk in the corner opposite the door remained untouched. No sounds came from Kyla's room, except for the occasional muffled sob. Her parents tried to make her feel better, to no avail. They did the best they could, but it was just too soon. She was still in a state of utter shock. They even told Kyla she didn't have to go to school tomorrow, but she said she would. Maybe all the distractions of school would actually help her deal with her emotional problems for once, instead of causing them. Not once throughout the day did Kyla get up and do anything. She didn't take a shower, didn't come out to eat, and didn't really do anything. Well, she did walk across the hallway to her parent's bedroom to get a new pillow to cry into. The last one was pretty waterlogged. The seconds ticked past slowly into minutes. The minutes ticked past even slower into hours. The sun lazily moved across the sky, changing the shadows in Kyla's room slowly. Her thoughts came so fast that everything moved even slower. She eventually reached out to the nightstand by her bed to turn on her alarm. Surprising that she could set it completely with her face still buried in a pillow. Tomorrow is another day.

 ***Beep*Beep*Beep*Beep*Beep*Beep*Beep*Beep***

Kyla woke up blind. That's one of the downsides to crying yourself to sleep. The tears had dried and sealed her eyelids. *Sigh*

"What a great way to start off the school day.." She threw the covers off of herself and walked over to her dresser. "I haven't changed clothes since Saturday. Ew." She slid into a plain black T-shirt and some running shorts. Today was a lot warmer. She walked to the bathroom, got ready for the day with as little effort as possible, and started to walk down the stairs. Then, remembering what she needed for art class, Kyla ran back up to her room to snatch up the Pop-Tarts sleeve she left behind saturday morning. She had been working on something very special, and she could only use these sleeves for the project. Kyla slumped down the stairs, said good morning to her parents who were on the couch, and walked into the kitchen. She had gotten up slightly late, so she had a frozen waffle for breakfast. _At least it's chocolate chip._ Kyla's dad walked into the kitchen, and leaned against the fridge.

"So, Kyla, are you sure you want to go to school today?"

"Dad, it's ok. What else is there to do today anyway." She glanced at the clock. "Well, I'd better get going, or I'll be late again." Kyla walked out of the kitchen and to the front door. She put on some run down sneakers, put on her backpack, and shoved the front door open. Her father spoke to her retreating back.

"Oh, alright, have a nice day at school Kylie!"

Kyla started off walking along the craggy and cracked sidewalk. She had a bad feeling that she was going to be late to her first class of the day. She started to speed up, now at a jog. She jogged over all the cracks in the sidewalk, under branches that got in her way, and around several still present puddles. She accidentally stepped in one of the deeper puddles, causing large shocks to go throughout the rest of the puddle. She stopped for a second to look down disapprovingly. The water reached all the way to the upper section of her shoe. _Great, now my left sock is soaked._ She continued to run towards school, her left foot now making a disgusting slushy sound every time she stepped down on it. She could see the school doors now, it was a ways down the street. Many cars were going into the parking lot to either park or drop off. The mass of people entering the school through the large double doors was overwhelming, as usual. The front of the school was actually pretty nice. There was a semi-circle shaped parking lot leading up to the entrance of the school. On either side was a nice grassy area with a tall, shady tree. Closer to the door, several benches bordered the school's light brown walls. There was a statue of the school's mascot a short distance from the front entrance, perfectly lined up with the center. The statue was of a large, glazed, chocolate donut. Of course that made sense, their team was called the Dover Donuts after all. How the mascot managed to bend his body around the hole in the donut costume was beyond Kyla.

Kyla walked past the beeping, backing, and bumping cars in the parking lot. She recognized a few people walking in through the double doors, but didn't really know them. There were a decent number of people that Kyla considered her "friends," but really there was only a handful that she could trust. She pushed open the doors and walked inside into the school lobby. There were small tables, potted plants, and students everywhere. She began walking to her locker that was by the stairwell. When she reached an intersection between hallways, she heard a howl. No, not like some creepy boy howling at her. It was more like a wolfish howl. Kyla knew what was going on, and she turned around, scanning the hallways. The stairwell by her locker was nearby. She looked left, then right, then forward, then up the stairway. She couldn't see the person coming. Suddenly, Kyla heard footsteps. They were heavy, sprinting footsteps. Kyla was shoved off her feet as someone who came from behind got her in a full tackle. Kyla twisted around and fell on her back, finding herself looking up into two eyes of different colors. One was a darkened purple, the other was a bright red. The howling girl that had now pinned Kyla down was wearing large wolf ears, a black sweatshirt with the moon on its front, and some extremely short black shorts. She spoke in a frenzy, rapidly stabbing questions at her like "What happened" and "Is Noah Alright?" to other conversations about the other people in school. Kyla tried to fight back her friend's vicious barrage of words but she couldn't answer quickly enough. Her wolf friend kept talking and talking and talking. The hallways were starting to thin of people, they were running out of time to get to class. They both had Art Class for their first period, an excellent way to ease into school. Kyla shoved her friend off of her and onto the floor.

"No, stop talking! We're going to be late Francisca! Let me get to my locker!" Francisca replied in a somewhat low, husky tone of voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry Kyla. I was just talking about Lana and Azendro and how their relationship was going and I was asking about Noah and rehearsing my ABC's for choir and about my schedule next quarter and-"

"FRANCISCA. STOP." Kyla could smell her friend's breath. It smelled like she was _Smoking something that was probably illegal._ (Requested Line) Kyla got up and dusted off her butt with the back of her hand. She stomped over to her locker, which wasn't too far away. She did the combination _4…. 26… 39._ She dove into her backpack, quickly retrieving the things that she would need for the next few classes. The rest she left in the backpack, shoving it into the brown locker. The lockers were colored in alternating browns and yellows, representing their school colors. She slammed it shut, hoisted her books up into one arm, and began half sprinting down to the art room. Francisca was still mindlessly chatting, not noticing that Kyla had walked over to her locker. Kyla sighed and hooked her arm underneath Francisca's arm.

"You're coming with me right now, I'm not going to let your be late again." Francisca continued to chatter about random topics that came to her mind.

"Wow that wall sure is grungy… Kyla I touch myself to the thought of nothing… I sleep with a handgun underneath my pillow…. I can't paint in watercolors." Kyla just kept dragging Francisca towards the other end of the school, trying not to get distracted by her and thus be late. _Francisca is a good friend… but she gets a little lost sometimes._ Kyla continued to drag Francisca down the school, until finally they reached the hallway where the art classroom was located. Kyla walked extremely fast towards the art room entrance. She was merely steps away when the bell rang. Francisca stared at Kyla. They knew what was coming next. Taking a deep breath, Kyla walked into the art room to hear a familiar screechy voice calling towards them.

"Ladies! You're LATE! What have you to say for yourself?" Kyla's odd art teacher walked towards the pair. It was really hard to describe her with a single sentence. She wore panda T-shirts every day, had a panda themed hoodie, and even drew large-scale pictures of pandas in her spare time. She had an overbearing personality, always eager to make herself the focus of any conversation. Both Kyla and Francisca responded with the same, melancholy tone.

"Sorry Ms. Pandurp"

"Alright, know I WILL be marking these tardies down ladies. Now please, take your seats!" Francisca uttered a few words of protest.

"But, but, but-"

"No butts about it! Go take your seat, Miss FlutterButter. Francisca kicked at the floor and walked over to her seat next to Kyla. The art room had an interesting layout. It was rectangular, with the door on one of the short sides. The yellow colored walls around them were covered in artwork of the various students that had the class. The only part of the wall not covered was the large window that covered an entire corner of the room, the opposite corner of the door. Large tables, covered in spots of marker and paint, were scattered around the room. There were a variety of mismatched chairs set to these tables, ranging from regular classroom seats to worn-down stools to low swivel chairs that were broken. The floor, much like the tables, was also covered in various stains from the process of art making. It was a silver tile. Ms. Pandurp's desk was in the closest corner to the window, also covered in scratches and colors. It had several pictures of relatives on it, and pandas. It had a small Mac computer in the center, as well as her latest project hanging on the wall behind her plushy chair.

Kyla walked over to the artwork drawers by the window, which were made out of some kind of metal. These drawers were basically a large cabinet with multiple layers that you could pull out, containing artwork organized by class period. She pulled open the 1st period drawer, which made an uncomfortable scratching noise as she did so. She sorted through the artwork of her classmates, looking for the one she was working on. Hers was very unique, and she spotted it almost instantly. Moving aside a Spiderman drawing, she felt the familiar crinkle of Pop-tarts sleeves. She pulled out a gigantic mass of these sleeves, carefully bringing it back to your seat. Francisca goggled at it, seeming to not know what it was after seeing it over ten times.

"Kyla, I can't remember, but what exactly IS that thing you're working on?" Kyla glanced back at Francisca, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Come on, don't you remember? It's the sleeve-shirt I've been working on for weeks!" Francisca took a second look, the thing did appear to resemble some kind of shirt. "In fact, I only need to sew on one more sleeve to finish the thing! After it's done, er done and graded, I was going to give it as a present to someone that I thought really needed some comforting.

"So, freak, are you still working on that creepy orange painting?" A rather annoying boy waltzed up to Kyla and Francisca, addressing the former. Kyla continued to fiddle with her project, clearly not wanting to converse with him. "Hey, bitch!" That word caught Kyla's attention, she gave him a cold stare out of the corner of her eyes. Her lips formed a deep frown. "I _said_ are you still working on your awful painting!" Kyla stood up and blew the hair out of her eyes. She crossed her arms with apparent disgust, and began looking at him. She scoped him out, her eyes searching all over him, of course recognizing him instantly. He was a somewhat short boy, wearing a black and red shirt with a gear symbol on the front. He was holding a container that contained many french fries. The boy's eyes had a strange, metallic glow. Finally, after a long silence, she addressed him.

"What's it to you, Timmy? The boy's mouth formed a smirk. He raised his head and turned it slightly to the right, looking at her through almost closed eyes.

"Well, I just wanted to know. If you had that picture out, it would have given me another good laugh." He was referring to last Friday, when she had been finishing up her last project. It was of a strange, masked person, wearing an orange suit. He, for some reason, kept popping up during Kyla's nightmares. She remembered his profile quite vividly, and decided to paint it. Unfortunately, last Friday, Timmy finally noticed her unusual painting. He pointed at it, loudly declaring to the class:

"What the _hell_ is that THING?" Timmy had also had french fries that day, successfully spraying chewed ones all over Kyla when he said the last word. Kyla's face turned a bright shade of red. She wasn't going to bother trying to explain why she was painting the person to Tim, and became all the more embarrassed because she wasn't speaking. Francisca, sitting to her left, merely looked hungrily at the conflict. Luckily for Kyla, Noah was sitting on her right. Noah stook up for her, gave her a pat on the back, and told Timmy to-

"Screw off twerp." Timmy, oblivious to the fact that he had just been told a twerp, continued to point and laugh at Kyla. She was still embarrassed, but Noah's comforting presence helped her feel like everything was fine.

That wouldn't be happening today. The seat to her right was empty, so Kyla had to stick up for herself.

"Well Timmy, if you want a picture to laugh at, I've got an idea for you. Take your phone, move your scrawny butt over to a mirror, take a picture of it, and frame it. I'm sure you could get quite a few laughs out of that one." Kyla wasn't prepared for what was to happen next. She was expecting a sarcastic retort out of Timmy in response to her roast. Instead, Timmy burst into tears, being roughly as loud as usual.

Heads turned, pencils and paintbrushes stopped moving. Timmy's face all the while got visibly more and more red. The only sound in the room now was the sound of crying broken only by the occasional sob. The chatter had all stopped. Kyla heard a lone pair of footsteps coming up from behind her. She turned back to see the black and white blob known as Ms. Pandurp.

"And what do we have here? What's wrong Timothy?" Timmy, nose dripping, tears running down his face, slowly pointed up at Kyla.

"She… her - she called… mem… she called *sniff* me... ugly! Timmy's crying became louder and louder. Ms. Pandurp, outraged, turned to Kyla.

"Well, what have you got to say for yourself?" Now Kyla was blushing again.

"No.. I didn't… I would never. It wasn't me, he's faking! I.. would nev-

"I've heard enough, aside from harassing a student, you also have the moxy to lie to a teacher! Detention for you, Miss Kyla Parkins! Kyla's mouth opened in protest, but she realized the futility of arguing and closed her mouth. Ms. Pandurp handed Kyla a green detention slip. She glanced to Ms. Pandurp's left, and saw Timmy looking back at her. His face was buried in his hands, but through a small opening she could see that he was giving her an evil smirk. Kyla took the slip and turned around, now extremely angry. She began trying to sew the final piece onto her project, but found herself unable to do so. Ms. Pandurp escorted Timmy back to his seat, trying to soothe him. Timmy was still hamming it up, bawling a little less forcefully than before. When Kyla finally calmed down enough to begin properly working on her project, the bell rang. She slipped in surprise, and accidentally made a long tear down the front of her project. _Oh come on.._ she thought, _that'll take the entire week to fix properly!_ She picked up her books, even more flustered than before. She told Francisca that she'd see her at lunch, and walked off to History class.

It was at the opposite end of the school. Kyla barely made it to the class on time. It was located in a rather small, green colored room. There was a smartboard at the front of the room used for lectures and note taking, as well as the teacher's desk close by. The students' desks were a few rows stretching to the back. Kyla's desk was somewhere in the middle. Every time she shifted her weight in the chair, it made a loud groaning noise. The class was pretty ordinary. The teacher droned on about some aspect of a stupid war that could have been easily prevented if one thing had been different. Kyla thought he was referring to World War I, but she couldn't be sure. She didn't really know anybody in the class, they were all in the year above her. The one person she did know wasn't there that day, and it wasn't Noah. It was a really strange kid that always hung around the teacher. Nobody really ever talked to him, and Kyla felt bad for him. That class came and went, and the school day was already almost half over. As the bell rang, Kyla got up, already dreading the next place she had to go to. It was the Cafeteria.

Sure, lunch didn't bug Kyla, she knew a decent number of people in the room and had a place to sit with a few friends. However, there was single reason that made lunch every day so unpleasant. A single person at the table managing to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere for everyone else. Francisca would be there, and that made Kyla feel a little better. But, Francisca was the reason that the despicable person would always come to the table in the first place. Kyla sighed, she never liked the nerves that always came with the lunch period. She walked into the cafeteria, pushing open the glass doors to do so. The cafeteria was large, grey, and relatively clean. There was a stage in the back, used for the theatre club. Long, rectangular tables were located in the center of the cafeteria. The sides contained smaller, round tables. They made group conversations easier, but forced groups to be smaller. Kyla walked over to the section of the cafeteria where she could pick up lunch -chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes- on the left side of the cafeteria. On the right were huge windows that allowed for the illumination of the entire room. Kyla carried her tray over to the table and sat down. Being the first one there, she felt strangely alone and isolated in the crowded room. Luckily, Francisca and a few others came after a minute or so and sat down. They shared a few laughs, and Kyla enjoyed her lunch. Then, someone caught Kyla's eye. _Ohhhh no!_ She watched as her least favorite person bounced over towards the table, eyeing the hair full of purple dye with disgust.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: _The Bell Tolls_

( _Sorry about the wait,I've been busy the past two weeks._ )

Heavy steps. A bouncing tray containing a large salad. It was full of crunchy lettuce and oval-shaped tomatoes. A carton of milk slid across the tray with each large stride the girl took. The pale girl's mop of dark purple hair draped down the sides of her face, extending to her shoulders. Her face was contorted into an obnoxious grin, loudly exclaiming over something that nobody else wanted to know about. The girl received several looks from some of her fellow classmates sitting at different tables. Nobody gave her a pleasant one. Her entire body was draped in black and purple clothing. Top, bottom, shoes, even her eyebrows appeared to be radiating an ugly purple. _Why did it have to be Lana? Can't she just be absent for ONE day?!_ Unluckily for Kyla, this person was heading directly for their table as she did every day. Francisca was the one to blame for this, as she was the only person at the table that actually liked the purple girl. Evidence of a cult or not, Francisca and Lana had strikingly similar outfits. Both had shirts with a shining moon located on the front, and both had wolf ears.

Kyla squinted at Lana's wolf ears, baring her teeth in a disgusted fashion. Her eyebrows lifted high up her face. _Bleck… why does she wear those… to be honest they look so much better on Francisca._ As the girl kept coming towards them, it became clear who she had been addressing on the journey across the cafeteria. A boy, a rather small boy, was lurking in the girl's shadow. Kyla had never really seen the boy before. He was quietly stepping behind her, not keen to be noticed by anyone. Whether he was shy or just didn't want people to see him with Lana, he stayed close behind her. Every once in a while, to make it seem like he was paying attention to what she was saying, he would nod at her as she gabbed on. As he got closer, Kyla noticed he was dressed in a similar fashion as the blabbing blob leading him. The outfit was rather ghostly. He wore strange purple and black robes, his head covered by a loose hood. The clothing messed with his appearance. He was hard to focus on, wavering in and out of focus as Kyla tried to stare at him. _Weird, that's almost like camouflage._ She couldn't see much of his face. Only his eyes glowed from inside the dark hood. Nobody said anything as Lana and this new child sat down. Lana slammed her cafeteria tray down onto the cyan colored table, plopping herself into one of the uncomfortable seats. It took a second for her salad to catch up with the bowl, but it settled down quickly.

Lana looked across the table, scanning the faces of the people sitting there. She was obviously waiting for someone to pose a question about the scowling boy who had now seated next to her. Lana was next to the boy and Francisca. Kyla was also next to Francisca, with others filling in the rest of the rounded space. Lana continued to wait, just ready to pounce on the opportunity to boast about something. Francisca continued to eat her lunch, going on as if nothing unusual was happening. _Does Francisca already know the new kid?_ Kyla continued to stare at him. When nobody spoke up for about twenty seconds, impatient Lana couldn't wait any longer to explain.

"So, I'm assuming you all would like to know who *She motioned towards the new boy* this is." She received several looks of indifference from the others. Unfaltered, she continued her explanation. " Well, I'd like to introduce you all to my new boyfriend, Azendro." Azendro looked up from his mashed potatoes to look around at the table. Kyla recognized the name. _Francisca mentioned him earlier._ Most of the people, excluding Lana and Francisca, were looking at him. They waited for him to say anything. Kyla was almost sure he was blushing under his hood. Azendro raised his shoulders, shrinking back from the table. He quickly looked around for someone, deciding to focus on Kyla.

"Hi…" Azendro went back to picking at his food nervously. The sound he emitted was really high pitched. The voice didn't seem to fit him. _Welp,_ Kyla thought, _wouldn't have known he sounded like that by looking at his outfit…_ Now that Azendro had spoken, Lana noticed that she wasn't the center of attention at the table. Murmurs went around about the new boy.

"Interesting!" One classmate exclaimed.

"Kind of creepy though." Another responded. Everyone was sharing their thoughts of him. That meant people weren't thinking about Lana, and Lana wouldn't have that. She started up again, attempting to talk over everyone else. A smug smile extended across her face that never reached her eyes.

"YEP, NEW BF." Lana rolled her eyes over to Kyla. "I'll bet SOME of you are pretty jealous!" Kyla's face grew red as she looked down at her tray. Francisca flicked her eyes side to side, giving both of them a quick glance. The tension building would have silenced most people, but Lana kept pressing on. She was clearly not disturbed or offput in any way. " Soooooo…. Kyla…. how's the single-thing working out?" Francisca turned slightly towards Lana and mouthed the word _Stop._ Kyla quietly responded to the smirking girl.

"It… it's fine Lana." Her face turned a deeper shade, and her left hand started to shake slightly. While a normal person might view this as simple shyness, Lana saw only weakness. Despite Francisca's warning, she continued to attempt and exploit Kyla's emotions.

"So Kyla…" Lana chewed a piece of lettuce in the back of her mouth. It made smacking noises when she opened her mouth. " Why exactly DON'T you have a boyfriend? Hmmm?" Kyla began to stutter, keeping a low volume.

"I… I just… I. Mmm. There was some… someone that I may have li… liked., b-but I nev…. never really tried to date anybody…." Kyla flicked her eyes back down, not wanting to look into Lana's thirsty eyes.

"Right Kyla. I'm sure that's the reason." Lana turned to Azendro and hid a laugh underneath her hand. Every person has a breaking point, and Kyla finally reached hers at that time. The blushed cheeks turned from a sign of nerves to a sign of anger. She looked Lana in the face and raised her voice much higher than before.

"Yea? You want to be like THAT? I wouldn't have anything to gloat about if I were you. The only person you have is that LITTLE SHADOW sitting next to you. IF you want to start bragging yourself up, next time you'd better make sure you have something TO BRAG ABOUT." Lana failed to react at first. Kyla's outburst was unexpected, catching her off guard. She stared wide-eyed for a second at Kyla, before realizing what she was doing. In an attempt to recover, she started shouting back at equal volume.

"Oh no. YOU are not going to try and push ME around you little RUNT. At least I have SOMETHING to brag about, so shut it you piece of SHIT. You don't even _have_ your little crush NOAH around, good riddance to that garbage." Francisca uncomfortably shifted in between them, not certain what to do. They were both her friends, and she hated it when they fought. Kyla didn't back down.

" BACK OFF LANA. I'm tired of you coming in here every day like you own the place. You actually THINK people WANT to hear what stupid thing you've gotten yourself into each lunch period? Ha. HAHAHA. Why don't YOU do us all a favor and shut it."

"Make me you single whining brat. I don't think you CAN though."

"What are you STUPID? LANA? Do you expect me to fight you in the god damn LUNCHROOM? What's the heck is WRONG with you? Lana sneered in return.

"What are you, _scaaaared?_

"No…. no no NO! I'm NOT! A lunch aide walked up as Kyla shouted.

"What's going on over here?" She waited expectantly for Kyla explain herself. Lana leaned back slightly, fully prepared to let Kyla take the wrath of the aide. Kyla's anger dissipated as she came to realise the situation she was in. Her anger had gotten the best of her, and she hadn't noticed the room around her. _Well, if I'm going down, she's going down too._ Kyla turned to the lunch aide, panic present on her face.

"Well you see… uh.. _She_ (Kyla pointed at Lana) started making fun of me…. Well… she started it! I was defending myself!" Kyla turned around to squint angrily at Lana, who had been keeping a look of surprise the entire time Kyla was speaking.

"What? Me? I would _never_ think about doing anything of the sort! Kyla is the one that started it!" Kyla and Lana locked eyes, leering at each other. Francisca excused herself and walked in the direction of a restroom, intent on getting away. The lunch aide gave them both a dissatisfying look, crushing both of their malicious intents to get the other in trouble.

"Look, frankly I don't care which one of you started it. The fact is you both were shouting at a volume of an unacceptable caliber. Both of you are at fault here, what do you have to say?" Lana and Kyla turned away from each other, each looking in the direction of the tiled floor. An uncomfortable silence grew, until the aide broke it. "Both of you, go to other lunch tables. Now." Both the girls rose up without protest, but with cold looks on their faces. Lana immediately walked over to a table at the corner of the cafeteria. A few shady characters sat at it, but welcomed her nonetheless. Kyla looked around for a few seconds. She didn't really know any other people in that lunch period. She walked over to an almost empty table, save for two others that she didn't know, and sat down to finish her lunch. The chicken she had was now cold. Kyla waited for the bell to ring, in what felt like the longest time. Francisca eventually returned from the restroom. Upon her seeing that Kyla and Lana weren't at the table, Kyla couldn't help but notice the relieved look on her face. The bell rang, and Kyla stood up and walked over to the nearest trash can. She dumped the remnants of her lunch into it, then went to return the lunch tray. Kyla's next class was Chemistry, so she began to walk out the large glass doors. As she opened it, she felt a firm grip on her shoulder. Too firm. The person pulled Kyla back into the lunchroom. Kyla turned her head to see Lana staring back at her. Lana spoke in a whisper, in case any adults were around.

"Well, if it's true that you're not scared, like you said earlier… I'm sure you won't mind if we settle this. After school, behind the school, I'll see you there if you're not chicken."

"Nice try Lana, I can't, I have detention after school."

"I can't wait to kick your ass, but I'll wait for you to get there. See you." Lana walked off towards her next class, already an air of triumph surrounding her. Kyla walked to Chemistry class. Thankfully, her friend Francisca was in the class to help ease her. Kyla sat down next to Francisca, who was her lab partner. She took a quick look around. The room was a cool blue color. The double-desks were in the center of the room all facing the teacher's desk in the front. Behind the desk was a smartboard and a few whiteboards. A counter extended around the back half of the room, covered in various scientific instruments. Test tubes, bunsen burners, tongs, hot plates, labeled bottles, and more. People shuffled in through the doorway as Kyla began to speak to her friend about what happened.

"So… Lana asked me to fight her after school. What should I do? Francisca looked like she didn't want to discuss this any farther. Fighting friends made her uncomfortable.

"I wouldn't want to if I were you… but you know Lana… she won't let this go. If you don't fight her, she'll call you a coward forever." Kyla looked towards the front of the room, the teacher was writing up today's lab on the smartboard. She turned back to Fransica.

"You know what, you're right. I'm done running away from my problems, and I'm sick of Lana running her mouth off. I'll do it." Kyla wasn't sure how she would be able to do that. She'd never been in a fight before, and didn't know what to do exactly. Kyla returned her attention to Chemistry class. She had to keep her priorities in order. The lab they did was over the properties of magnesium, a simple thing. Magnetism, flammability, etc. It went by remarkable fast. The bell rang, signaling the start of the next class. One step closer to the end of the day, one step closer to the fight.

If Kyla thought Chemistry went by fast, then her Geometry class went by even faster. Every day in that classroom, they took note after note and solved problem after problem. Tedious work, that Kyla could hardly ever focus on normally. Today, she couldn't even be bothered to take notes, only two things were on her mind. One, the fight. Two, the odd kid that always sat next to her. He acted strangely all the time. Whenever someone approached him or asked him a question, he started yelling about unrelated things. He wore a long-sleeved navy blue shirt, some jeans, and a pair of sneakers. The thing that she noticed about him was the fact that he always had a pair of red headphones in. Kyla didn't even know his name. She might ask him tomorrow. Her mind drifted again, never staying on one thing for too long. There was a leak coming from the ceiling, a squirrel running up a tree outside, she turned quickly to look at everyone that passed by the classroom door. After a long class of random thoughts swirling in Kyla's head, the bell rang that signaled the end of the normal school day. Kyla didn't even notice that class had officially ended until she saw people walking out the door. She gathered her things, and took the long journey to her locker. She piled the things she would need to complete her homework into the black backpack she always carried around, and slammed her locker shut. Kyla walked to the room where detention was held on Mondays. It was a relatively cluttered and small room near the southern end of the building. She pushed through the hoards of moving people in the halls, finally making it into the doorway. The room felt different when compared to the way the rest of the school felt. While people were joyfully moving around in the hallways, ready to be free from school for the rest of the day, the detention room was eerily silent. Kyla wrapped her fingers around the wooden doorway, pulling herself inside slowly. The person supposed to be watching the kids in detention was leaning back in their chair, reading a book. Kyla looked around at the extremely rectangular room. It had windows bordering an entire long side. The desks were arranged in rows of two stretching all the way to the back. The walls were littered with "positive" posters that approved good behavior. Only three other students were in detention, and Kyla assumed that nobody else was coming. She shut the door behind her, and walked to a seat somewhat close to the front. She eyed the people that were in the classroom. Two people - _probably friends_ \- sat next to each other in the row behind her. She knew one of them as the creepy kid in her history class. For some reason he was dressed in a black suit, complete with a white undershirt and red tie. _I guess that's odd for school, but the rest of his outfit really adds to that "disturbing" vibe I get from him._ The kid also wore black loafers, grey gloves, and a mask that covered his entire head. The mask was of a koala. _He's… a koala wearing a suit. Weird._ Finally, the boy had a normal yin-yang symbol that covered most of the front of his suit.

The koala-boy was speaking with someone else, also dressed in an odd fashion. The boy sitting next to him had the garb of a ninja. A blackened outfit with red highlights, he looked pretty menacing compared to the suited koala sitting next to him. The boy's eyes glowed a shimmering red, but the rest of his face was concealed under wraps. Like his companion, this new guy also had a yin-yang symbol on his front. The symbol, instead of being black and white, was black and red. She gazed past them, noticing another somewhat familiar face. It was the boy from Geometry class, still listening to music. She could see that he was a wreck. His brown hair was jagged and short, extremely messy. His brown eyes looked tired, dark circles present underneath. He was looking around at all the people in the room, shifting between them quickly. He caught Kyla's gaze and instantly snapped his vision back a different direction. Kyla sighed, she was so stressed out about what was coming soon. Then she noticed something peculiar, sitting behind the brown-haired boy she saw another person. There were five people in the room, not four after all. She couldn't quite make him out, he was in the darkest part of the room. All she saw were a familiar pair of glowing…. eyes… _That's it! It's him! The boy from lunch!_ He just sat in the back of the room, blinking slowly, staring at the teacher that was supposed to be watching them. Kyla followed his eyes until she too was looking at the person in the front desk. He wasn't paying any attention to them. Kyla decided that she wanted to talk to someone in the room, and now would be the perfect time for that. She turned around to look at the two guys directly behind her. This time, they noticed her and stopped whispering to each other. The koala guy was the first to speak up.

"Umm…. hello?" A little more silence followed. Kyla had to respond eventually.

"Oh, um, hi! My name is Kyla, how about you?" The same boy responded.

"Well, hi Kyla. My name is michael. Nice to meet you." He looked over at his friend, the ninja, waiting for him to introduce himself. The boy said nothing. Michael looked over at him, rolled his eyes, and then Michael slammed his head on his desk. The ninja looked at Michael, who continued hitting his head on the desk in apparent frustration. He then turned to Kyla and whispered.

"Sorry about that, Michael can get a little anxious at times. My name is Solomon. So um, what did you want to ask?" Kyla stared at Michael while she talked, one eyebrow raised in humor.

"Well, I don't know, I just wanted to talk to someone about something. So um, why are you in detention Solomon?" He mulled over what he was going to say for a couple of seconds.

"Oh, I just got caught sneaking into the girl's locker room. Wasn't as stealthy as I thought." Kyla's face slightly turned pink.

"Oh alright then." She gestured at Michael. "What about _him?_ "

"Well…. he may have finally gotten caught doing what he does… Every day, during lunch, he goes into the bathroom stalls and waits for people. When someone finally comes in to take a wazz or something, he starts making the most uncomfortable noises… yea. I guess he accidentally did that to a teacher or someone… mm. Why are you here… Kyla?"

"Oh you know, something stupid I didn't do…" Solomon started tapping his finger on the desk in front of him.

"Riiight. That's what they all say." Kyla nervously brushed the hair out of her face and started to tap her foot against the floor. "By the way, are you all right? You seem kind of nervous." Kyla clenched her right shoulder with her left hand, turning to look at Solomon.

"Oh… it's… nothing? I'm just… inafihfetmrw.."

"What was that? You sort of mumbled that sentence, Kyla."

"I said I'm in a… fight later today."

"Really? With who?"

"Oh, you probably don't know her Solomon. Her name is Lana."

"The one with purple hair?" Kyla nodded slowly. Solomon grunted in response. "She's a real piece of work. Ew. Well, here I'll give you a tip for that fight. Make sure you're moving around quickly on your feet. It makes it easier to react to punches." The word punches made Kyla emit a shudder.

"Oh.. thanks I guess." A mumble came from Michael, who's face was still pressed against the desk. _What did he say?_ "Hmm? Michael?" The boy lifted his face off of the surface to give her his two cents on the matter.

"I said, go for the legs. Legs are easy to pull out from under someone. And trust me, I should know, I do it all the time from underneath the bathroom stalls." Kyla wished she hadn't heard the last part, but gave him a thankful nod anyway. "Good luck with that fight." Suddenly, Kyla heard shouting.

"FIGHT? FIGHT? I HEARD FIGHT. WHO'S FIGHTING?" The brown haired kid had run up from the desk he was seated in, looking somewhat disturbed with one headphone hanging out. He slammed his hands down onto Kyla's desk. "WELL?" Kyla blinked several times, putting her hands in front of her as if to say _calm down._

"Hello, my name is Kyla. What's yours?"

"WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW? I STILL DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE FIGHT." Kyla waved her arms in a frenzy, trying to calm him down. He was being way too loud. _It might just be better to answer him to get him to calm down._

"Well, I'm fighting someone."

"WHO?"

" That isn't important," Solomon chimed in. Kyla told him anyway.

"Well, her name is Lana."

"OH, that's COOL I guess." A long stretch of silence followed. Kyla decided to break it.

"Well? You still haven't told me your name dude."

"WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW? What are you planning to DO TO ME?!" Kyla was taken aback, he still hadn't calmed down. _Well he's…. paranoid?_ She shook her head.

"No no no, I just wanted to know!"

"ALRIGHT THEN. MY NAME is Lukas. Lukas Swizz. Nice to meet you Kyla." He turned to Solomon. "I don't really like you that much." Solomon finally stopped tapping his finger on the desk, it had been driving Kyla nuts.

"Noted," he said exhaustedly. Lukas continued to jump between thoughts.  
"Well, if it's Lana you're fighting, I could help. I really… really… don't like her. She's just so DUMB! Like, she tries to insult me all the time… telling me I look like shit… but she like, doesn't get that I don't care what she thinks. But she just keeps talking and TALKING. Oh god why did I just tell you that." Kyla stared at him, eyes wide open.

"I.. don't… know. But you said you knew how to fight Lana?"

"WHAT? WHO TOLD YOU THAT!?" Kyla blinked a few more times, controlling her annoyance.

"You did," Kyla responded cooly. Lukas appeared stunned that he had forgotten such a crucial detail.

"Oh… right. Well.. pull her hair out." Kyla turned her head slightly, shutting her right eye.

"Whaatt? Why…"

"Well, getting your hair pulled on hurts. Also I would love to see that purple just… dissappear. BYE!" Lukas put his hanging headphone back in, took a few deep breaths, and walked back to his desk. He was surprisingly calm looking.

"Bye… then?" Kyla looked back towards the front of the room. The teacher was still reading. _What the hell? Didn't he hear any of that? Does he just not care?_ Kyla turned her head towards the window. She stared out at the barren trees of late winter. Still, at least it was now somewhat warm outside. She looked out the window for the longest time, until finally, she fell asleep.

Kyla woke up to the sound of the school bell ringing. It was telling all the people in extracurriculars and detention to go home. Kyla opened her eyes slowly and peacefully. For a second she forgot where she was and what she was doing. Her head was still faced towards the window. She noticed four people walk by her desk. Her thoughts were unorganized and random. _It's such a nice day outside… who are those people walking by._ Suddenly Kyla's heart started pounding. She realized where she was, and more importantly, where she was going. Kyla raised her head up off the desk and took a frantic look around. The room was now almost empty. She had no more time to prepare, the last bell had rung, the fight was happening now. She tried to stand up but her knees buckled. Kyla barely had enough time to catch herself by grabbing the two nearest desks. She stood up again, taking slow and careful steps towards the classroom door. She already was starting to feel sick. The door seemed so far away. Sweat stung Kyla's eyes, she tried not to think about anything except where she needed to go. Finally she reached the door and walked out into the hallway.

"Hi." Kyla nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the creepy voice coming from the shadows of the nearby row of lockers. She turned to look, and once again saw only a pair of glowing eyes. Kyla pointed at him.  
"You…. you… what do YOU want?" Azendro responded calmly, bringing Kyla's guard down.

"I was just going to tell you where to hit Lana. But I can see that you don't want to talk to me, so I'll be off." He started walking away.

"WAIT! I… I'm sorry. I'm just really nervous and all. You can tell me.. i-if you still want to that is."

"Alright, fine. I'll tell you _Kyla._ " The way he said her name was unnerving. "If you want to beat Lana, you need to punch her straight in the stomach. Her stomach is her weak point." She stared at him, unsure if he was telling the truth or not.

"Is that right? She can't take a hit to the gut?"

"Yea. That's right. Trust me. I'll see you there, real soon." He vanished into the shadows, leaving Kyla alone with her thoughts once again. Kyla somberly walked to the front exit of the school. She felt calmer now, as though she had an ace up her sleeve to this whole fight business. In a way she was glad she got detention, she learned a few _helpful?_ tips about fighting. _I'll have to thank Tim for getting me into that, tomorrow._ She walked around the side of the school, dragging her fingers on the smooth brown walls. Her nerves had returned with a vengeance, eating away at her. She rounded the next corner, coming face to face with a small group of people that had to have been waiting for her. She saw Lana, Azendro, and a few other people that she didn't recognize. _Well, people always love to see a fight I guess._ Francisca was distanced from the rest of the knot, leaning against a tree. She looked pretty depressed about the whole thing. Lana, of course, had to be the first person to speak up.

"WOW! I didn't think you'd actually be able to show up! Great job Kyla," Lana said while sliding off her purple sweatshirt. "Well, let's get this over with. I want to go home soon anyways." Kyla walked across the long grass towards Lana. The sun was now shining bright in the distance, effectively blinding her right side. Everyone was watching her, waiting for her to do something. Kyla simply took her hands out of her pockets and raised them. They became fists, but she wasn't sure what else to do with them. Lana started walking around Kyla in a slow circle, hands also raised. They both watched each other intently. _Be ready to move._ Kyla stayed on her toes, ready to jump out of the way if Lana tried to tackle her or something. Lana crushed the long grass underneath her heavy footsteps. _Go for the legs._ The people were watching them intently, even Francisca. Francisca's eyes were red-rimmed, which distracted Kyla for a split second.

Kyla snapped back into focus just in time to see Lana's fist starting to come towards her. She jumped back, yelping a little. The punch was a facade, not even reaching half the distance between them and veering in a different direction. She jumped for nothing. Lana smirked when she noticed this.

"Aww… what's the matter Kylaaa? Did I scare youuu? If you want me to stop, all you have to do is admit that I was right and that you're a lousy piece of shit and that-" Lana was cut off as she fell straight on her ass. Kyla had darted swept Lana's legs out from under her while she was busy gloating. The sound of Lana landing in the grass was satisfying to Kyla, but it was short-lived. Lana got up, now enraged by the fact that she was knocked down by little Kyla.

"Lucky shot, kid." Lana brushed the grass off of herself. "I'll make sure that doesn't happen again." Kyla remained silent, intent. Lana lept forward, catching Kyla in the shoulder with a punch. _Ow.._ Kyla's shoulder was starting to feel a little numb. The punch wasn't even that strong. Lana threw another punch that was heading for Kyla's chest. Kyla quickly reacted and blocked it with an open hand. Her arm shuddered when Lana made contact. Lana then, in something familiar to Kyla, tackled her to the ground by rushing her quickly. Kyla kept her feet under Lana's stomach, but Lana was still pinning her to the ground. Lana's hand was clenched around Kyla's left arm, crushing it against the ground. Kyla struggled, finally managing to bring her right hand up to Lana's head. She grabbed a fistful of hair and pulled as hard as she could, successfully separating it from Lana. This caused Lana to momentarily loosen her pressure on Kyla, which gave Kyla the opening she needed to get out of the hold. She took her feet and pushed them up hard, sending Lana reeling back.

Kyla sprang up on her feet, just in time to dodge a kick from Luna. _This is intense._ They traded punches, Kyla managing to dodge most of Lana's. They were both breathing heavily, but Kyla was wearing out faster. _I can't keep this up forever!_ She decided to take the next opening she could to finish Lana off with the ace up her sleeve. Lana, clearly getting frustrated, threw a punch that missed Kyla completely. With nothing to take the punch, Lana was thrown off balance and started stumbling forward in the tall grass. Kyla's saw her chance and struck. She hit Lana directly in the stomach with her right fist. It looked like that had done the trick. Lana was bending over the point where Kyla had hit her. Lana's purple hair hung around her face, which was facing the grass. Neither girl moved for about five seconds. _Yes, YES! I got her!_ Kyla felt overjoyed, she looked towards Francisca. Francisca shouted in Kyla's direction at an unseen danger.

"NO! KYLA!" Kyla looked back down towards Luna. Luna was staring her in the face with an evil grin. She grabbed Kyla's arm with her left hand, successfully locking Kyla in place. Kyla looked at Lana in disbelief.

"No…" Lana used a quick move of her left hand to pull Kyla forward. Kyla tripped trying to keep her traction on the somewhat wet ground. She started to fall forward, but was met with Lana's other hand. The right hand delivered a devastating blow to Kyla's jaw, knocking her completely back onto the soggy grass. She was Lana standing over her in triumph, but her vision was starting to fade. _How.. how did she.. Know I was… No! It was him.. Azendro… he betrayed… no... they... planned... this..._ Kyla couldn't think anymore. She was Francisca bending over her, panic present on her face. She looked like she was starting to cry. The last person Kyla heard before she blacked out in the grass was Lana. It was only one word:

"Weak."


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6: Territorial Defense_

 _Cleaning up always sucks, especially when nobody else stays to help._ Francisca slowly walked over to Kyla's position on the ground. It had taken a few minutes for her to calm down in the shade of a large oak tree. She was still trembling, and fearing for her friend. Lana and the other spectators were long gone, leaving a trail of crushed grass in their wake. Francisca remembered staring at their retreating backs, managing to curse through tears. She now bent over Kyla, examining her frightfully. Kyla had a few bruises on her legs, arms, and face. The jaw is what worried Francisca the most. There was a large bruise covering the spot where Luna struck Kyla, and a trickle of blood running out of Kyla's mouth. Francisca poked Kyla's arm, attempting to wake her up. She whispered to Kyla.

" _Kyla_ … _Kyla_ … _Kyla_?" There was no response. _She's out cold…_ Francisca saw Kyla breathe slowly, in and out. _At least she's alive…_ Francisca gingerly began to lift Kyla up, eventually pulling her into a sitting position. Another breath managed to startle Francisca, causing her to release Kyla and lose her balance. Kyla slumped forward as Francisca wheeled her arms clockwise, managing to prevent herself from falling. Francisca looked at Kyla, wondering what to do. _I can't just leave her here… should I take her home?_ She decided taking Kyla home was really the only option she had.

She walked around to Kyla's front. Francisca grabbed Kyla's sides, slightly above the waist. She bent down far, managing to pull Kyla up and onto her left shoulder. Keeping Kyla in place with her left arm, Francisca slowly rose into a standing position. She took slow steps at first, making sure she could stay balanced with Kyla slung over her shoulder. When she found that she could carry Kyla rather easily, she picked up the pace a little. She began to walk around the first corner of the school when she suddenly lost her balance. Francisca fell forward, tripping over a section of knotted grass. Kyla landed on top of Francisca, managing to knock the wind out of her. _Oof._ Francisca pushed up with both of her hands, getting up into a kneeling position. Kyla slid off of the side of Francisca's back, landing in some of the taller grass. Francisca got completely up, cursing as she saw her scraped knee.

"Shit. Why can't they ever cut this grass?" She once again walked over to Kyla, hoisting the girl onto her shoulder. Francisca continued to walk along the side of the school, trying to be extra careful not to fall again. She avoided the particularly tall sections, and managed to get to the front of the school. She glanced down at herself as she finally made it onto some pavement. Her front was wet and muddy from landing in the grass. She guessed the same was true for Kyla's back, judging from what she could feel with her hand. _Gross._ The sidewalks were in miserable condition, slanted and full of cracks. The puddles that had been present in the morning still resided in their positions on the particularly low portions of sidewalk. Francisca stomped through them, shivering slightly as she felt Kyla breathe.

She glanced at the houses she walked by, wondering if anybody had seen them. The thought of anybody seeing Kyla like this made Francisca angry. _She doesn't deserve to get taunted about any of this._ Francisca continued to walk, focused on what she would say to Kyla's parents. They were getting closer to Kyla's home, and the thought of that confrontation made Francisca nervous. _What can I possibly tell them? Your daughter was in a fight? I just stood there and watched?! She got knocked out by my friend? No.. no no no!_ Francisca stumbled on some uneven ground while panicking over it. She caught herself, steadied Kyla on her shoulder, and continued walking. _Her house is just a few blocks away…_

They were passing a light green house when Francisca's wolf ears slid off of her hair and blocked her vision. They were in the place you would normally expect to find a pair of glasses. She laid Kyla down on a dry portion of the sidewalk for a few seconds so she could fix them. First she pushed her hair back to its rightful place, since it was hanging close to her face. Then she pulled off her wolf ears, brushed off a bit of mud from the left ear, and slid them back onto the top of her head. Francisca straightened the hair around her ears, now with a goal in mind. She wanted to look at least somewhat presentable to Kyla's parents. She brushed the grass off of the back of her sweatshirt, and brushed off her legs. As Francisca was grooming herself, she noticed something from the corner of her eye. There was someone staring at them from the nearby house, standing in the doorway. His expression changed from confused to concerned as he spoke in their direction.

"Kyla?!" Francisca was able to make him out more clearly as he sped towards them across the yard. He was wearing a striped shirt, a pair of jeans, and a strange, pink hat. _What the heck is that thing on his head? It looks so fat…_ _and pink…_ He ran over to Kyla, squatted down and began looking at her. He looked panicked, checking to make sure she had a pulse. He noticed the dried blood on the side of her face and the bruise on her chin. He looked up at Francisca, his voice now slightly angry.

"WHAT HAPPENED? WHY IS KYLA LIKE THIS?" He stared at Francisca, waiting for her to answer. She still didn't know who he was, and wanted to make sure she did before she told him anything.

"Who are you? Why should I tell you anything?" His eyes shifted between Francisca and Kyla while he spoke.

"I.. I'm Kevin. Noah's brother. You know Noah right? Kyla's friend?" She was startled to hear that this person was Noah's brother. She thought about what he must have been went through, what with the accident and all. Francisca decided she could tell him what happened. For some reason she felt that she didn't want to bring any more panic to the guy.

"Alright, thanks. I do know Noah…. Well, Kyla's like this because she um… got into a fight with my friend Lana… and she had detention after school… and in the fight she got hurt real bad… and I dropped her a few times… and-"

"It's alright," Kevin interrupted, "I think I get the gist of it now." He licked his finger and used it to wipe the dry blood off of Kyla's face. He stood up and looked at Francisca.

"What exactly are you doing with her?" Francisca looked up at him, he was decently taller than she was.

"Well um… she got knocked out so… I was taking her home."

"Didn't you think to call anybody or get help?" Francisca felt stupid answering that.

"No."

"Well… I guess I could take her home if that's ok with you." Francisca looked relieved at that, it would mean she wouldn't have to talk to Kyla's parents. "I could just drive her over there and explain it to Kyla's parents. Is that ok?"

"Yea… yes! That's great, I should be getting home anyway!" Kevin picked Kyla up and carried her over to the car sitting in the driveway. He walked around the car, opened the passenger door, and placed Kyla inside. Kevin walked back around, slid into the driver's seat, and shut the door. He reached across Kyla, grabbed the seat-belt, and strapped her in. He did the same for himself, and started backing out of the driveway. Before pulling out onto the road, Kevin lowered the window. He looked at Francisca and said-

"See you!" Then he pulled out completely and started driving in the direction of Kyla's house. Francisca looked at the car in a daze for a few seconds. It was too late by the time she remembered to shout out-

"Bye" in the direction of the car. Too bad Kevin was already out of earshot. Francisca felt her stomach drop and raised her hand to her forehead. There was a little sweat present. _Why was I so nervous just then?_ She thought about the interesting boy as she began her long walk home.

About half an hour later, Francisca arrived at her front yard. It was pretty nice, containing a shady tree and no patches of dead grass. Large stones littered the part of the yard that bordered the house. The yard was also extremely small, because houses in the neighborhood were built close to each other. Francisca's house was a single-story, dark brown house. She walked up to the red-colored front door, and tried to open it. Unfortunately it was locked, so Francisca turned over the stone to the left of the door in order to get the spare key. She forced the dusty, golden key into the lock with a decent effort. _I can never remember which way to turn this._ Francisca turned the key to the left. She turned it 180 degrees in the lock and pushed on the door, which opened on the first try. _Yes!_ Francisca walked inside, turned to the right, and kicked her shoes off into the corner of the room. The house appeared to be empty. _Mom must still be at work._ Francisca glanced down at her muddy clothes. _I'd better go take a shower… this is pretty disgusting._ She swiftly walked through several rooms, heading towards the back of the house. There she would find her and her mother's bedrooms, as well as the bathroom. Francisca went over to her bedroom door and attempted to push through it while walking. Something was blocking the door on the other side, which caused her to slam her face into the it and tumbled down to the floor. Francisca picked herself up and forcefully shoved the door open, pushing aside whatever had previously blocked it.

Francisca took a deep breath as she entered her room. _It always smells better in here than in the rest of the house._ She glanced around the walls of her room. The walls and ceiling were both painted black. Small, bright spots of yellow dotted the ceiling. In the middle of the room hung Francisca's silver-colored ceiling fan. Basically the room looked like the night sky, with a full moon in the center. Odd decorations covered the walls and tables of the room. There were posters of wolves, wolf sculptures, snow globes, and even a dreamcatcher. Francisca glanced down at whatever had been blocking the bedroom door. _Oh, it's just my pile of sweatshirts._ She pushed them slightly away from the door, not bothering to pick them up. She walked over to the large mirror that covered the wall opposite her bed. Francisca looked herself over, seeing what kind of state her clothes were in. _Eck, filthy._ After taking one look at her wet clothes, Francisca peeled them all off unceremoniously. She looked at her nude self, nodded once, and walked over to the doorway. Francisca peered out, making sure nobody was around before she dove across the hallway into the bathroom. There was no movement, so she ran across into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

Francisca only had one goal in mind while taking her shower. She glanced at the tiny clock in the room. _I will not take more than ten minutes to shower._ For some reason, Francisca was extremely self-conscious about the amount of time it took her to shower. She would just stand there, wasting time. It sometimes pissed her mom off, especially if her mom was in a hurry that day. Every time Francisca tried to cut down on her shower time, she found herself standing under the water, thinking. In seemingly no time at all, she would find that she had taken even more time to shower. _Not today!_

Francisca grabbed a washcloth and climbed into the bathtub. She set the cloth out of the showerhead's reach, and turned the showerhead on. While she was bent over the knobs, a blast of extremely hot water hit her back. Francisca cringed, but fought through it so she could turn the cold-water knob enough. After about 30 seconds, she had achieved the perfect temperature. Grabbing a bottle of coconut scented shampoo, Francisca worked to get some dried mud out of her hair. The mud had created several painful knots, that pulled whenever she tried to move her fingers past them. Working fast, she got the knots out. With that out of the way, she stood under the comfortingly warm water for a few moments. Francisca pursed her lips and folded her arms, deep in thought. Uncomfortably, she eyed the body wash that was resting on one of the tub's sides. _I'm thinking about him again…_ The guy from earlier was still on her mind. Something about him sent her emotions on a trip. With a sigh, she reached for the body wash and grabbed the washcloth.

(Time Passes)

Some time later, Francisca emerged from the shower. Water dripped all over the floor as she walked across the bathroom to retrieve a red towel. The mirror in the bathroom was completely steamed up. _It feels like a sauna in here._ She glanced over at the clock, which was also steamed up. She couldn't even read it in that state. Francisca wiped her hand across the clock's surface. To her horror, an entire 17 minutes had passed. _Nothing's going right today…_ Francisca proceeded to dry herself off rather angrily, because she had not been able to wash away the memories spawned earlier. She opened the sole window to let the steam escape. The room became clearer and clearer, unlike her thoughts. Francisca finished drying off, hung her towel back up, and walked over to her room. As she entered her room, Francisca heard a car pulling up into the driveway. _Must be mom._ Without a second thought, Francisca reached back and pulled the door shut. She walked in front of the mirror again. She took a slightly longer look at herself than last time, and shook her head in disappointment. Francisca threw on a pair of fuzzy, grey pajamas. She snatched her laptop off of the nightstand next to her bed, and jumped up onto the bed. Francisca opened the laptop, and waited for it to finish starting up. She was still extremely flustered, so while she was waiting, she went over to the wall and switched on the ceiling fan. Francisca went back to the laptop, and found it ready to use. She opened up Minecraft, went on the popular server Whineplex, and played the rest of the day away.

(Time Passes)

"Francisca… Francisca wake up!" Francisca drearily looked around. She was lying in a field, facing the sky. For some reason she kept moving back and forth… "Francisca! Hellooo?"

"...huh?..." She tilted her head off the ground and looked slightly to her left. Someone was grabbing her shoulders… calling her name… she didn't know who it was… she felt tired…

"Francisca!" She looked at the person again. She knew who it was now.

"Oh… hi… Kevin…" Francisca yawned. She placed her head back down on the soft grass and started to fall asleep again.

"GET UP!" Francisca jolted upright, feeling the sweat on her face. She was at home… in her room… in bed. _I was dreaming._ She sleepily looked to her left to see her mother standing beside the bed. She had her hands on Francisca's shoulders.

"Good morning… mom." She was fighting to stay awake.

"Francisca… dear it's a school day… you have to get up or you're going to be late!" Her mother now paced across the floor. "You seemed like you were having a nightmare… you kept saying the name Kevin. Who is that? Oh dear you're covered in sweat… HURRY UP!" Francisca got ready as fast as she could, threw on a random sweatshirt from the floor pile, and walked out of the house. _Why couldn't she have just let me sleep…?_ Francisca was dreading the school day to come.

The day crept by slowly. Francisca was bombarded by feelings of guilt the moment she stepped into first period. Why was that? _Oh… Kyla isn't here today… bummer._ Francisca worked on a watercolor painting, using heavy amounts of black, purple, and blue. Her emotions began to eat her up. Then, someone sat down in Kyla's seat. With a hopeful expression, Francisca turned, expecting to see her friend show up slightly tardy. When she saw who sat down, she turned back to her project. Francisca angrily swiped her paintbrush across it. _Don't talk to me… just don't._

"Heyyyy Francisca. Where's your stupid frieeeenddd?" Francisca cringed as she was splashed with chewed up french fries.

"Shut up, Timothy!" She responded without looking at him.

"Well, I heard that she got beat up yesterday. Serves her right!" The smugness of that comment was enough to get Francisca to turn towards him. He was wearing light, tan pants and an almost syrup-colored shirt. Once again, he was holding french fries in his hand. She said nothing and turned back to her picture, making it clear she was not in the mood for conversation. Timothy was not one to give up so easily. He looked at her watercolor painting, noticing the sad colors that dripped across it.

"What are you painting there, your tears? Are you sad that your pathetic friend isn't here? Aww." Francisca knew what he was trying to do. He did the same thing to Kyla yesterday. She decided not to push him out of Kyla's seat, no matter how badly she wanted to.

"No Timothy. This is actually what your face is going to look like if you don't stop talking to me." The smirk disappeared off of the boy's face. He walked back over to his table, defeated and without a comeback.

The next class wasn't nearly as good as art. Francisca had nothing to take her mind off of her emotions, and was left to suffer. Of course it didn't help that the next period was lunch, the one that she dreaded most. Unfortunately, nothing could prevent lunch from happening, and eventually the bell rang. Francisca debated hiding in a different classroom during it, or simply wandering the halls. _No.. Lana and I need to talk about this… maybe…_ She pushed open the cafeteria doors and nervously walked in. Her stomach was too upset right now to actually eat anything, so she walked over to the lunch table and sat down. Two others showed up after a short time, but Francisca still didn't see Lana. She thought about what she was going to say. _We need to talk … Lana we need to talk… Hey, we should talk… mmm_ Just then Lana and Azendro walked into the room. Francisca looked at Lana's hands. She was carrying something and walking towards the tale. _Oh no… is that? A packed lunch!? I've run out of time to prepare!_ Francisca began to panick. She wasn't quite ready for the confrontation. Instead of calming herself down, she dove underneath the table in an effort to hide. Thankfully, Lana was once again talking to Azendro. She wasn't really watching where she was walking, actually. _Did Azendro see me? No… I think Lana blocked the view._ Francisca wondered how the other people sitting at the table felt about this. As Lana and Azendro got closer, Francisca could hear their "conversation." It's pretty one-sided.

"You know that thing wasn't at school today? It's probably to scared to show its face around here. That's good, now I can talk badly about her and her car-jockey friend without getting interrupted." With every cold statement that Lana said, Francisca grew more and more angry. "Hey, Azendro. Wouldn't it be great if _every_ terrible person in this school got injured and didn't show up? That would probably take a while though. There are a lot of lame people here. Well, two of them are already gone! That's something to celebrate I guess." Francisca was shaking. She started moving closer. "I'm not sure why Francisca likes her in the first place. She's too good for that little shit. Speaking of her, where is Francisca? She seemed shaken up yesterday after that little fight. That's a shame, I thought she was cooler than that." Fire flashed in Francisca's eyes. She was furious now. She looked in Lana's direction, ready to let all of her emotions get out in the fastest way possible. "So anyway, how are you doi-"

Lana stood up, her eyes wide open. She had a pained expression on her face. "OW! WHAT THE HELL?" She looked down. There was a mark on her left leg, and blood was flowing out of it and down her leg. Francisca emerged out from under the table, a lot more calm than moments before. "FRANCISCA? You… BIT ME?" Francisca looked from the bite mark to Lana's face. Francisca licked her teeth, not saying anything. "WELL?" Francisca's anger completely faded as she saw the hurt, betrayed look that Lana gave her. She knew she was in the right, but still regretted what she did.

"... yes." Francisca shuddered as she walked out of the cafeteria. She left Lana confused, hurt, and standing there with a bleeding leg. Later, before going to bed, Francisca swore she could still taste the blood on her lips. It was oddly satisfying.


End file.
